Re: Pfizer Vaccine #1 - Nancy
Yes, she's in treatment. The first chemo seemed to stop working, as the tumor began to grow. She was switched to the second line of defense. After a rocky start on her first round, it settled down to being more tolerable. She is on many other drugs as well, mostly to keep symptoms at bay, but some are more directly related to the treatment, such as the shots she takes to keep up her immunity. She also takes steroids for several days after a treatment, and oh boy! She is a powerhouse, can't settle down. I remember being on high dose steroids right after my T.A. diagnosis, I trembled and shook, couldn't stop eating, developed muscle weakness and neuropathy. etc. She's that way now for several days a week. Yesterday she went shopping with Bert, and spent $200, buying everything in sight including a pair of shoes for me! This morning she got up and by 8 a.m. the corned beef she bought yesterday was bubbling in the cooker, the kitchen had been organized in the wee hours, she was getting ready to go out again for extra pickling spice. She forgot to buy cabbage for the corned beef, so she went out again after that. Then she thought the pickling spice wasn't strong enough, and I had to stop her from going out yet a third time. That's steroids for ya. Her hair is completely gone now, and for the first time last night, when Bert cut off a few stragglers that had survived the chemo, and I mean a few, she cried. Treatment has been going on since last July. This was the first time in all these months that she cried. I am glad to report she has not lost any weight, in fact she's gained, and she thinks she looks like a blimp. The doctor said last week, don't complain. Most people he sees are losing tremendous amounts of weight. She is now being treated at City of Hope, a specialty facility recommended by the pancreatic cancer organizations, but they so far have not done anything too different from the first one where the doctor was an oncology generalist. Except that the expense is far greater now, far, far greater. The co-payment for shots she takes to keep up her immunity is over $100 a shot, the shots are 3 times a week on this chemo, and were 6 times a week on the other. City of Hope is 50 miles each way, no one is allowed in to the facility with her. Bert has been taking her, and sitting in the car all day while she is being treated. Nancy, what do you think of City of Hope as opposed to Cedars and UCLA? We can go there, too.
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